Leoš Janáček & Kryštof Mařatka

Leoš Janáček: Nursery Rhymes (1925 version), JW V/16 / eight songs for one to three mezzo-sopranos, clarinet, and piano

Kryštof Mařatka: Altotem / nocturnal archaic music for viola with piano accompaniment (Czech premiere)

Kryštof Mařatka: Pastoral Fables / composition for viola, clarinet, piano, and Czech and Moravian folk instruments

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Kryštof Mařatka: The Mystery of Mr Rybka / melodrama for one comedian (and one) pianist, based on a short story by Karel Čapek

Leoš Janáček: The Diary of One Who Disappeared, JW V/12 / song cycle for tenor, alto, three female voices, and piano

While Janáček’s music is rooted in Moravian folk tradition, Kryštof Mařatka (b. 1971) draws inspiration from ethnic music across several continents.

Mařatka’s composition Pastoral Fables from 2016 is inspired by the world of folk music and its instruments, which the composer sets in dialogue with conventional instruments. Among the folk instruments heard are the bezovák (elder-wood bagpipe), chamois horn, ragman’s whistle, nose flute, shepherd’s trumpet, and bone flute.

His melodrama The Mystery of Mr Rybka (2015) is based on Karel Čapek’s short story The Footprint from the collection Tales from One Pocket. Here, the spoken word and narrative play the central role, while the music, rather than dominating, provides a subtle counterpart to the storytelling.

The composition Altotem, a nocturnal archaic music piece for viola with piano accompaniment, is inspired by key collections of a leading French institution exhibiting treasures of the past and of the very origins of human activity: the National Museum of Archaeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris. The composer explains that in his imagination, the “altotem” is a mythical ancient and forgotten musical instrument—some kind of predecessor to the modern viola—which, through its archaic and unusual sound, protects the museum’s collections, watching over them and keeping a guarding hand above them. The name itself reflects this idea, composed of two parts: alto, meaning viola, and totem, a symbol of protection and guardianship.

Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) composed his playful Nursery Rhymes shortly after his seventieth birthday. This period is characterised by striking chamber instrumentation (Nursery Rhymes, Concertino, Capriccio). As so often before, his inspiration came from the daily newspaper Lidové noviny, where the children’s supplement published rhymes accompanied by illustrations by Josef Lada, Ondřej Sekora, and Jan Hála. This concert features the original 1925 version for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano, which Janáček later expanded.

It was also in Lidové noviny that Janáček encountered the text for another composition, the song cycle The Diary of One Who Disappeared. During the Prague National Theatre premiere of Jenůfa in May 1916, the newspaper published in serial form an anonymous poetic cycle entitled From the Pen of a Self-taught Man. The story of a young man’s love for a gypsy girl, for whom he abandons his parents and sacrifices his peaceful life in exchange for love and freedom, captivated Janáček, who carefully preserved the clippings. He began composing the cycle in August 1917, shortly after meeting Kamila Stösslová, who would become his lifelong confidante and muse. Although he struggled with the work in 1917 and 1918, he returned to it with renewed focus in 1919, finally completing it, though still unsure how it should be performed. The breakthrough came in 1921, when pianist and conductor Břetislav Bakala and tenor Jaroslav Lecian performed parts of it for him. Janáček then revised the cycle and agreed to its public premiere, which took place on 18 April 1923 in the Reduta Hall in Brno. Today, The Diary of One Who Disappeared ranks among the most compelling song cycles of the 20th century.

Text: Jiří Zahrádka